Etsy, Inc., an e-commerce website, announced its fourth quarter earnings results on Tuesday. Etsy's shares jumped nearly 10% after the announcement that the online e-commerce site narrowed its net loss during the final three-month period of 2015.
Etsy posted a net loss of $4.23 million for the fourth quarter of 2015, compared to a net loss of $5.36 million in the same period last year. Quarterly loss per share narrowed to $0.04 from $0.12 in the last three month of 2014. Meanwhile, income from operations rose to $8.42 million from $176 thousand in the previous year quarter. Etsy's quarterly pre-tax profit totalled $2.1 million, compared to a loss of $2.25 million last year.
Gross profit amounted to $57.7 million in the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2015, up 36.9% from $42.13 million in the prior year period. Revenue for the reporting period rose 35.4% to $87.9 million from $64.9 million in an earlier year period. The online craft seller credited its combination with PayPal for the increase in its quarterly revenue.
Etsy's gross merchandise sales (GMS) totalled $741.5 million, an increase of 21.3% from $611.5 million in the previous year period. This increase in GMS was helped by the previous year growth of 15.5% and 21.4% in active sellers and active buyers respectively.
However, for the year 2015, the company's net loss widened to $54.06 million or $0.59 per share from a net loss of $15.24 million, or $0.38 per share in the previous year. Annual pre-tax loss increased to $27.99 million from a loss of $10.26 million in 2014. But, loss from operations narrowed to $1.9 million from $6.25 million last year.
Gross profit for the year 2015 increased to $176.52 million from $121.96 million in 2014. Revenue amounted to $273.5 million in 2015, up 39.8% from $195.6 million in the previous year. Annual GMS rose 23.6% to $2.4 billion from $1.9 billion in 2014.
Analysts expected loss of a penny per share on sales of $86.7 million for the fourth quarter that ended December 31, 2015. For the year 2015, Wall Street analysts anticipated a loss per share of 56 cents on revenues of $272 million, as reported by ZDNet.
The company expects GMS growth rate to be in the range of 13% to 17% for the three-year period from 2016 - 2018. While, the revenue growth is anticipated between 20% and 25% for the same three-year period.
Seeking Alpha quoted Chad Dickerson, chief executive officer of Etsy, who speaking at the fourth quarter conference call said the company's quarterly results portray the strength of its working team, which helped the company to achieve its strong financial growth. He also said that nearly 90% of the company's traffic come from the "organic channels", which boosted the buyers' growth in the quarter.
The online handmade products seller is pleased with its quarterly results boosted by strong sales. Etsy has pledged to continue the progress in the coming years.
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